There are movies, and then there are great movies. One great movie is Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
My son and I watched it Sunday. It is an epic of the silent film era, and now considered a standard in science fiction. Originally released in 1927 to rather bland reviews, it has overcome that rank evil and achieved classic status. I can't say enough about it. When it ended, I was left speechless.
Indeed I didn't want it to end. The sets were remarkable. Many scenes were no less than spectacular. The cinematography was awe inspiring. Much of the special effects rank with the best modern CGI can offer. The actress who played the female lead, Brigette Helm, absolutely nailed her complex character. I should say characters, and I will let that hang as something of a tease.
I don't want to get into the story; even the lamest spoilers would simply be immoral. It's so good you must see it for yourself. I've never watched a silent film in its entirety before, but now I hope to find more as spectacular.
You really can say a lot without words. Metropolis does it very, very well.
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I trust that you were watching the Murnau Foundation's 148 min. 2010 digitally restored version called "The Complete Metropolis" by Kino Lorber, its distributor. It includes 25 minutes of lost footage rediscovered in Argentina, and features Gottfried Huppertz' 1927 musical score played by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra with Frank Strobel conducting.
That's what we saw, yes. A wonderful find, a great restoration!
When recommending Metropolis, it is important to specify that you mean the 2010 148 min. "Complete" version, because there are so many DVDs, web videos, VHS tapes and other video recordings of different versions out there.
Three blurry, bleached out versions of the film are listed at Wikipedia:
* 1972 East German version.
* 1984 83 min. Giorgio Moroder version with a pop/rock score composed by Moroder and others, and with songs performed by Freddie Mercury, Bonnie Tyler, Adam Ant, Pat Benatar and others. Moroder placed the dialogue in subtitles, and color coded the scenes with different tints. This version was rather popular for years, and there are a lot of copies still in circulation.
* 1987 109 min. Munich Archive version, with the rediscovered 1927 score by Gottfried Huppertz.
Someone watching one of these grainy, pock marked versions will get the same basic plot, but will experience a vastly different film than the version you saw.
* 2001 124 min. "Authorized" digitally restored version. This was produced by the same Murnau Foundation before a longer copy of the film was discovered in Argentina. The score by Huppertz is used.
Viewers of this version will see something close to the version you saw, but lacking 25 min. of footage.
That good stuff to know. I'm glad I never saw it before the fullest version.
Ack! I just saw on YouTube that someone has colorized the 2010 Complete version!
So there's another one to warn people against!
The colorizers. They're everywhere!
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